Archives: March 2001

There are only a small handful of books I read and reread. For example, I've "done" Karl Weick's SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF ORGANIZING at least 8 or 9 times, re-underlining each time.

This "vacation" it was my 4th heavily underlined rereading of Stephen Jay Gould's FULL HOUSE. I LOVE STATISTICS AND PROBABILITIES AND THE PROPERTIES OF VARIOUS DISTRIBUTIONS OF DATA. (There, I've said it.) Gould explains phenomena grand and trivial by examining the properties of variations in populations.

"All this" led me to the SUPER HOT "cloning thing." Consider another of my "light reads," Richard Lewontin's THE TRIPLE HELIX. Bottom line: Genetic Determinism is BULL. What matters: The INTERACTION of Genes and Environment and Random Shit that happens.

Or, consider one of my favorite topics, The War for Talent. As Stan Davis & Christopher Meyer put it in futureWEALTH, "When land was the productive asset, nations battled over it. The same is happening now for talented people." Talent rules!

"It's time for U.S. organizations to act. No other country in the world has a comparable supply of professional women waiting to be called into action. This is America's competitive secret." Strong statement! Competitive secret #1! I AGREE! Judy Rosener, AMERICA"S COMPETITIVE SECRET.

"Would Congress [the Boardroom] be a different place if half the members were women?"—Susan Estrich, SEX AND POWER. Who can resist this title?

FICTION

THE DIAGNOSIS, by Alan Lightman. The main riff is about the fantastic (truest meaning of that word) 24/7 life many of us now lead. WHICH MAY WELL BE KILLING US.

My next thrilla was Caleb Carr's KILLING TIME. Set in 2023, it depicts a world where the once-benign Internet has made it impossible for any of us to discern truth from fiction. Again, this hit home.

Speaking of thrillas ... I have just found somebody truly as good as Le Carre ... somebody totally unknown to me. I've quickly devoured about 4 of Alan Furst's novels. Such as KINGDOM OF SHADOWS, DARK STAR, and THE POLISH OFFICER.